Do you think Granada ever becomes free? How do the other Satterfield slaves satisfy their need for belonging after freedom?

Created: 01/31/12

Replies: 5

Posted Jan. 31, 2012
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admin

Join Date: 10/11/10

Posts: 369

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Do you think Granada ever becomes free? How do the other Satterfield slaves satisfy their need for belonging after freedom?

Gran Gran tells Violet, "After Freedom, everybody all of a sudden had to decide where he or she belonged. Nobody to tell them no more. Wasn't easy for some of us ... Some of us picked wrong, I reckon." What does she mean? How do the other Satterfield slaves satisfy their need for belonging after freedom? Do you think Granada ever becomes free?

Posted Feb. 02, 2012
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bonnieb

Join Date: 09/11/11

Posts: 105

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RE: Do you think Granada ever becomes free? How do the other Satterfield slaves satisfy their need for belonging after freedom?

Granada chose to remain on the Satterfield plantation after she received freedom. For her 'freedom' was a word that she didn't understand. She though of it as a place, an object or something literal. Conceptually, she was not able to grasp the word. She lived her life by her own choice, however, and in that sense she was free. Many of the other slaves moved to a community they started themselves.

Posted Feb. 03, 2012
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joyces

Join Date: 06/16/11

Posts: 368

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RE: Do you think Granada ever becomes free? How do the other Satterfield slaves satisfy their need for belonging after freedom?

I think Granada finally gained freedom from the mental burden of slavery after she shares her history with Violet and learns the rest of the story of Violet's life and origins. She came to see that the community around her from which she had isolated herself was what could offer her a reason for her life. She could share what was now history to most of them and see that the community was a thriving, viable continuation that had gone beyond the past and could get her beyond the past.

Posted Feb. 16, 2012
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gwendolyndawson

Join Date: 10/20/10

Posts: 63

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RE: Do you think Granada ever becomes free? How do the other Satterfield slaves satisfy their need for belonging after freedom?

The Satterfield slaves forge their own, independent community, and they become free in that way. It is a courageous move and, as a result, many of them had happy and fulfilled lives. It takes much longer for Granada to discover freedom, but she eventually does after she meets Violet.

Posted Feb. 17, 2012
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Lori

Join Date: 09/15/11

Posts: 9

RE: Do you think Granada ever becomes free? How do the other Satterfield slaves satisfy their need for belonging after freedom?

I don't think that Granada ever really became free until she acknowledged her own place and role in the history of her people. She had lived her life in the place she was born, in the role she was assigned. It wasn't until Violet appeared and Granada learned the fate of Polly Shine and the other escaped slaves that she realized that she had been free and had had choices all along. The escaped slaves formed an independent, self-sufficient community of free men and women.

CubsFanMom02

Posted Feb. 21, 2012
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luisaao

Join Date: 01/01/12

Posts: 3

RE: Do you think Granada ever becomes free? How do the other Satterfield slaves satisfy their need for belonging after freedom?

I don't think Granada ever really understood freedom until she is able to go back and recount her life with Violet. The pieces did not fit until she was able to look back and see it through the eyes of an old woman who life is coming to an end.